Tag Archives: Lorry spotting

For many years we played a lorry spotting game as we drove to France and back. It started with the famous Norbert Dentresangle and you got one point for each lorry you spotted.

It soon developed into quite a complicated game with one lorry for each country and double points for a ‘special’ ie hauling a tanker or with a double trailer. We had Willi Betz, Eddie Stobart, Catalan Lines, Christian Salvesen, Olloquegi , and many others. Check out my Lorry spotting blog of 2012 with all the names and rules.

On our way back from France yesterday I noticed that not a single Norbert was to be found. Indeed virtually all our point scoring lorries seem to have passed into history.

On return I looked up Norbert and found it was taken over by a company called XPO logistics. Monsieur Dentrasangle is now a very rich man, £3.2 billion rich…. possibly.

We did see one lorry from the good old days, it did not score any points back then but it made us smile. It was Fockedey !!! In fact my wife was the one who saw it.. Later I said I was still keeping my eyes peeled to see if could spot another one. To which she said ‘I think one Fockedey is enough.’ She knew what she was saying… naughty girl.

Many years ago we played the lorry game, it was one of those games to keep the children occupied on the journey form Calais to Poitou-Charentes. It all started with Norbet Dentresangle lorries but it developed and became quite complex and competitive.

I usually won because I was driving and so kept my eyes on the road all the time whereas the children’s attention would inevitably wander. I did a blog about the exact nature of the game some years ago so I wont go through it all again but if you click Lorry game then you can see how it worked.

Recently whilst waiting in Dover I did the nerdy thing and took a series of Photos of the lorries and with the exception of Norbert Dentresangle all the lorries we used to look out for seem to have fallen by the wayside. Where are the Frans Mass and Catalan Lines? What has happened to Norfolk Line and Danzas? We even had one from Portugal called Olloquegei.

We do still see the occasional Willi Betz and although it was not part of our game at the time I still have a childish titter when I see a Fockeday lorry.

Here is a Yellow lorry, this one was not part of the game I wonder if there is a Prancer and a Rudolph to go with it.Norbert is the red lorry in case you are wondering, but I seem to recall that Frans Mass was also red as was one called Transcontinental routeways and this could cause problems when playing the lorry game…. You lost points for wrong identification… see I told you it was Nerdy.

You could still play the game of course but you would need to have different lorries and a wife who would be prepared to join in and be as nerdy as I am.